Thought we did well in that first half. Solid defensively and largely contained Real. Looked dangerous going forward as well at times and YEN had a great opportunity. VAR call was bang on as there was clearly a foul. So not sure why it took so long to make a decision and why their fans are incensed.
I’d happily take a goalless draw as we managed at Valencia last week. Think we’re playing a lot better as well so far.
We are playing quite defensively, but RM is not doing much on attack to be fair. They are trying to create something only through Vini, but to no avail.
We have been solid in defense. I don’t like Oliver’s fragility, not suitable for this match and may cost us a lucky goal. We also need to be a bit more threatening in attack. If we keep defending and losing the ball quickly, RM will score sooner or later. They are known to be able to score with half a chance, so you never know.
There’s so much space to exploit, but we lack precision going forward. YEN missed a really good chance early on. At this level, you put it on target and test that keeper. No much besides that.
Soumare & Sow are playing very well in those transitions. Especially Soumare in his work marshalling us out of defence. Can we trigger his clause please?!
That’s why I honestly think RM will never have a ‘real’ big club mentality. They are a big club economically and statistically, also on paper… but very often act like a small club and try to depend on the refs to save them.
I know refs usually favor big clubs and star players, but to whine in every decision against a team that is fighting for relegation (like we are atm), while you are sitting on top of the table… that’s childish and definitely not a big club mentality.
I am yet to see a match where Man City players whine like this and depend all their luck on ref. They go out there, dominate the matches, play real football and don’t care much about refs. That’s a big club mentality.
That’s just the La Liga in them. All those comebacks they were making 2 seasons ago, as well as making the Champions League theirs, kinda puts them up there. And to be fair, in terms of rebuilding a strong team, they’re doing an exemplary job in recruiting young players.